Search and Rescue (Closed)

[Deleted]

Valentin had been walking, hands stuffed in his pockets, along the edge of Erikson Park when it happened. One of the passing cars - a minivan - hit a pothole at just the wrong angle. The rear right tire popped with a sound to rival a gunshot. The minivan heaved, buckled and wobbled to a halt, hazards flashing on the side of the road. He squinted through the morning sun at the scene, waiting, assessing. A middle-aged woman squeezed out of her driver door, opened as little as possible to avoid traffic that continued by. Valentin watched her quiet two kids in the backseat, wrestle with her phone, stop at the blown tire and press one hand exasperatedly to her forehead. Valentin pressed his lips into a firm line, gathering patience. He was going to do it - it was the right thing to do - but he didn't want to. He wondered if that made him a bad person. Regardless, Valentin approached the woman, explaining he worked on cars for a living and insisted on changing the tire for her. She hesitated at first, but when her call to her husband went to voicemail, she relented. Valentin deftly set to work. By the time the spare was in place, the woman had been forced to retreat back into the van to break up an argument between her kids. Valentin rubbed the sweat from his brow with the back of one hand and reached distractedly for the hubcap and the lug nuts waiting in them. He misjudged where it was, though, and his hand knocked the lip of the hubcap instead. For one brief moment Valentin saw the lug nuts glittering in midair in the sun... Then they scattered into the grass on the other edge of the sidewalk and Erikson Park that stretched away from it.

. . . i see you here in the darkness, blinding light right where your heart is. if you're ready, i'll be waiting, heart is open, come find me . . . zagreus Julian Stane

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[Julian Stane]

Technically he should have been in class right now - but it was a study day so, well, he didn't see the point. He could study for the test back in his dorm room. He thought about texting Shane, seeing if he wanted to head back to the dorms and play some video games or perhaps just hang out and wander the town. Alas he knew the other man had class right now too and was most likely attending. He wasn't sure if Shane ever skipped a class for anything less than the end of the world. Of course Shane wasn't his only option to hang out with - he had his siblings too but Lisa had school as well and Scott and Ivan had jobs. Ugh. Sometimes he regretted being the fun one that occasionally shrugged off his responsibilities. Sometimes. Julian noticed the young man helping replace the tire as he was walking by. He was tempted to offer to help but it seemed like the other man knew what he was doing. But then he saw lug nuts go flying. He could sense the metal they were made of the moment they passed by his eyes, which flickered orange briefly, subtly. Well now he had to help. They'd be a bitch to find in the grass, he knew that much and, well, he also knew he kind of had a cheat sheet to finding them. "Let me help," he said, smiling kindly, to the young man though he didn't really leave room for him to refuse. He moved to the grass, knelt down and pretended as if he was looking. Then he closed his eyes, concentrated, and flicked his wrist. His hand glowed orange as the lug nuts tumbled from where they had been scattered and found their way into the palm of his hand. It was subtle enough that he wouldn't draw unwanted attention and if no one was paying attention, they wouldn't have noticed. But if the other man had been watching him, he would have likely seen the glow and seen the lug nuts skirt into his hand. Julian really hoped he hadn't been watching. He stood up, turning to face the other man, the glow having completely faded by that time. He tossed the lug nuts up and caught them easily, grinning triumphantly. "Found them!"

... lookin' through the glass, find the wrong within the past knowin' we are the youth, cut until it bleeds, in a world without the peace, facing a bit of the truth ... vulcan @valentin outfit 389 words Sorry about the wait! Also sorry about the sub-par post.

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[Deleted]

Were Valentin the kind of person to curse, now would've been the perfect time to let a few choice words fly after the scattered lug nuts. Instead, he took a sharp breath, then exhaled with a dour, "Hmm." Valentin was just collecting the corners of his frustration - there wasn't a point at being pissed, it wouldn't change things, he might as well move on - when a voice met his ears and a shadow fell across his face. He looked up at the other young man who'd appeared, quirking a brow, squinting through the sunlight that silhouetted him. Valentin didn't so much as have time to part his lips to thank the guy for his intervention when the stranger was scraping through the grass, looking for the lug nuts. Valentin's furrowed brow didn't smooth. It was rare to stumble upon people so willing to help nowadays. Let alone help him. Valentin raised on his feet and stepped over the curb, planning on getting down on his hands and knees to help. Soft, warm light the color of a dusky sunset whispered over the grass from the other guy; so subtle and quick he'd have missed it if he'd blinked. Valentin's brow creased deeper, thoughts mulling in his mind. "Found them!" The stranger sprang up, hand outstretched and full of every wayward lug nut, positive energy rolling off of him, focused in his smile - verging on the line between joyful and smug. Valentin looked slowly from the objects up to the stranger's eyes and his brow's crinkles lessened to just slightly intrigued. Valentin tried smiling back, but it was small and tight, and he was very much aware that usually his grinning didn't put people at ease. "Thank you," he said, Bulgarian accent thickening his words. Valentin reached out and his callused fingers scraped against the softer ones of the stranger as he collected the lug nuts. He turned, stepped back onto the street and crouched to get back to work. "What is your name?" he asked while he spun the nuts on just enough to keep them in place for starters. "I am Valentin," he added.

. . . i see you here in the darkness, blinding light right where your heart is. if you're ready, i'll be waiting, heart is open, come find me . . . zagreus Julian Stane

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[Julian Stane]

He didn't think the other man had seen him use his powers. He kept his powers a secret except for when he was wearing a mask, but he'd still watched carefully the reactions of others to those with powers. Not everyone was as accepting as they claimed to be, after all. The way the older man - though he didn't look much older than Julian - smiled made him feel like perhaps he'd overstepped. Some people didn't like being helped after all. Some preferred to handle things on their own for whatever reason - often times ego, he thought - while others simply weren't good with other people. He shifted from one foot to the next awkwardly as he was thanked, noting the man's accent and the way their fingers brushed. His hand, not empty, reached up to fiddle with the pendant on his necklace. "No problem," he replied to the thanks, though he still wasn't entirely convinced his help had been wanted. "I'm usually better at minding my own business, I swear." He said it with a joking tone but he wasn't lying. It wasn't too often that he felt awkward around someone else and it didn't help him not be awkward that his mind kept thinking he quite liked the way the man's accent sounded. Damn accents. Julian could feel the lug nuts being spun into place. He could feel the moment they were as tight as they could be spun, the moment they refused to move anymore. It was very obvious just from that that the other man seemed to know quite well what he was doing. He startled, having been distracted by what he could sense, could feel, when he was asked his name. Valentin? Crap, that was a nice sounding name. He wanted to practice saying it, to see how it'd roll off his tongue, but that would have been really weird and he didn't want to risk creeping Valentin out. "Julian," he replied and then added, because his mother had hounded in the importance of family and family names, "Julian Stane." Something flickered in his mind, drawing his attention to the metal, something about it off. He moved to kneel down next to Valentin. Sensing metal was new to him - He wasn't sure when his ability had gotten to this stage and he didn't quite know how to turn it on and off. He didn't know how to fully control it. "That one's loose," he said, reaching out and poking one of the lug nuts. He didn't know his eyes flickered orange as he touched the metal. "It'll... It'll take weeks but it'll rotate from the vibrations - from driving - and then it'll fall off." That part was more of a mixture of him being able to sense the state of the metal - also something he couldn't remember the exact date it started - and having active knowledge as a mechanical engineering major.

... lookin' through the glass, find the wrong within the past knowin' we are the youth, cut until it bleeds, in a world without the peace, facing a bit of the truth ... vulcan @valentin outfit 483 words notes

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[Deleted]

Valentin worried, while he worked, that the other man was insisting he normally "minded his own business" because of his own penchant for inherently intimidating others. He wished he knew how to not. How to convey what he was actually feeling without his severe features and piercing airs obscuring them. Because Valentin was grateful for the assistance - if curious at it. The sort of kindness the stranger was showing was rare. Valentin wasn't blind to the fact that it was the same sort of kindness he was showing by changing the tire in the first place, either. "I appreciate the help," Valentin grunted, trying lamely to reemphasize the truth. He was just finishing using the lug wrench to tighten the nuts in a criss-cross pattern, sweat beading his pale, stern brow, when the stranger finally gave his name. "Julian," Valentin repeated softly. He looked up at the other man from where he was, still crouching, squinting against the sunlight. "Well. Thank you again, Julian Stane." Valentin was about to straighten when an odd look came over his unexpected helper. Julian murmured how one nut was loose, joining Valentin in a crouch to prod it with his finger. The car mechanic looked, eyes narrowed in thought, from the nut to Julian and back. There was no reason for him to know such things... But Valentin hadn't forgotten how the lug nuts had so easily been recovered. "So," Valentin said, stern tone questioning, "what are you going to do about it?" When Julian looked at him, there was knowing in his severe eyes, but no unkindness. In fact, there was a kind of confidence and encouragement lurking there. If Julian had been able to make the lug nuts jump into his hand, and knew that this one was loose, was there something he might be able to do to change that fact?

. . . i see you here in the darkness, blinding light right where your heart is. if you're ready, i'll be waiting, heart is open, come find me . . . zagreus Julian Stane

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[Julian Stane]

Oh no he liked the way his name sounded coming from Valentin's mouth. He really hoped his face felt hot because of the sun. He told himself to focus on anything except the way Valentin had said his name - not that there was anything odd to how he'd said it, quite the opposite and that was the problem. The Stane men were good at a lot of things and Julian was one of the more sociable of them but finding anything about someone attractive was not one of those things. Attractive people seemed to make any of their brains go on the fritz. Apparently only Lisa had inherited their mom's smoothness. His eyes found Valentin again, the faintest widening to them from surprise, when he was asked what he was going to do about the lug nut. It felt more like a challenge than an actual question but not in a bad way - an encouraging sort of challenge, he thought. Besides he quite liked a challenge... Except this one came with an added sense of danger. He thought Valentin might have even looked confident in his ability to do something about it. But Julian didn't think there was anything he could do without using his powers. There was only so much he could turn it without his powers, he knew that from his classes. He took in a breath and let it out, the air shaking faintly with nerves. He wasn't sure how long he stared at the lug nut - probably shorter than it felt like. He wondered if Valentin was getting impatient, about to offer to do it himself. He brought his hand up, holding it close to his chest as it glowed orange to limit the amount of people who could see the glow. But he knew there was no way to hide it from Valentin - the other man was too close. The glow leapt to the lug nut. With a twist of his wrist, the lug nut twisted more until it was as tight as it could get. "There," he breathed out as the glow dissipated. He stood up quickly and took a few steps back, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck and trying to avoid eye contact, his cheeks dark. "It uh - It should be good to go now." He gestured awkwardly with his free hand toward the tire.

... lookin' through the glass, find the wrong within the past knowin' we are the youth, cut until it bleeds, in a world without the peace, facing a bit of the truth ... vulcan @valentin outfit 394 words Sorry about the wait. ❤

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[Deleted]

He watched Julian, unwavering. Thoughts chased each other around plainly on the other man's face, and Valentin thought that the way his brow furrowed and lips pressed each other into a line was very cute. Finally, though, after glaring at the lug nut for twenty seconds, Julian gestured slowly to it. Valentin didn't so much as blink at the ruddy orange glow that shimmered in Julian's hand. With a prod of his finger, Julian's power passed into the lug nut, fastening it. The other man breathed out a "there" and stood anxiously. Valentin squinted up at him, nodding in appreciation. "That was kind of you," he observed, and internally Julian's meeting the challenge head-on had endeared him to Valentin as much as stopping to help in the first place. Valentin finished up deftly and stood, too. He looked at Julian over his shoulder in a way that wasn't up for debate. "Don't go anywhere." He quickly spoke with the woman whose van it was, politely shrugged off her thanks and watched her pull out into traffic. Valentin's attention shifted, then, from the disappearing van to Julian, waiting awkwardly a few feet away. "I would like to buy you a coffee, if you're not too busy," Valentin said. And for the first time, he smiled. Even if it was crooked and didn't echo in his eyes like most people. "To show my thanks."

. . . i see you here in the darkness, blinding light right where your heart is. if you're ready, i'll be waiting, heart is open, come find me . . . zagreus Julian Stane

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[Julian Stane]

He gave a small nod when Valentin said he'd been kind. He felt more like he'd been stupid, using his powers in front of someone without a mask. Even if it was possible Valentin hadn't noticed the first time, there was no way he'd missed that orange glow the second time. So far the other man didn't seem to have any problems with people with powers but what would he think if he ever saw the masked vigilante Vulcan manipulating metal with an orange glow? Yes he definitely felt stupid. Julian's eyebrows rose ever-so-slightly when he was told not to go anywhere. That look and the way he said it made it feel more like an order than a request. He blinked, confused because the last time he'd gotten a look like that, he'd been a teenager and it'd been from his oldest brother after finding out he got suspended from school for a week. He stayed where he was, though, hand fiddling with the pendant of his necklace. He didn't know why Valentin wanted him to stick around. Part of him was flattered because Valentin was obviously attractive. But the other part worried this had to do with his show of powers. Maybe Valentin had seen Vulcan before - He didn't know how but he also had never paid much attention to whether or not he showed up on the news - and had already put two and two together? He paused his fiddling with his necklace when Valentin approached him. He was trying hard not to stare when Valentin smiled because he really liked the way he smiled - It was different, unique, and in a way endearing. His face heated up because his first thought was is he asking me out? But then Valentin clarified it was to thank him and he nodded awkwardly, almost disappointed he hadn't just been asked out by a stranger he'd just met. "Uh sure - Yeah!" he replied, putting on a smile of his own to let the other man know that he wasn't lying, he was indeed happy to get coffee with him. "You obviously don't have to but I won't turn down free coffee, especially from a cute-- I mean from you-- I mean... Yeah." He grimaced, face hot and clearly embarrassed and clamped his mouth shut before he could further embarrass himself.

... lookin' through the glass, find the wrong within the past knowin' we are the youth, cut until it bleeds, in a world without the peace, facing a bit of the truth ... vulcan @valentin outfit 390 words n/a

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[Deleted]

Julian's cheeks flushed a beautiful pink when he was asked to coffee. Valentin was split roughly in the middle, half of him worried that his invitation was making the other boy uncomfortable, half observing impartially that when Julian blushed he looked very, ver cute. Any concern Valentin had that'd he'd overstepped was put to rest when Julian gathered himself and smiled. He agreed to the coffee, and at the slip-up, calling Valentin "cute," the older youth's smile returned - small, gentle. This time it even went the barest, most ghostly bit into his eyes. "Good," was all Valentin said in return. He shoved his hands in his pockets and started down the sidewalk, stopping to arch a brow over his shoulder at Julian, waiting for him to catch up. "There is a mobile café just up ahead, if I remember correctly," Valentin explained. He nodded when it came into view. The trailer was parked cleverly next to a paved portion of the park that was full of small, two-person tables and chairs of wrought iron, painted a weather-worn, chipped baby blue. Fortunately, too, there was no line at the moment. Valentin let Julian order, then asked for a large, black coffee. "I can wait for these," Valentin said, brow furrowed, "if you would like to choose our seats." Hardly had Julian picked then the drinks were ready. Valentin nodded in mute thanks to the barista, dropping two one-dollar bills into the tip jar before he picked up the beverages. Valentin handed Julian's over to him and took the seat opposite the other young man.

. . . i see you here in the darkness, blinding light right where your heart is. if you're ready, i'll be waiting, heart is open, come find me . . . zagreus Julian Stane

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[Julian Stane]

He was still a bit dazed, a part of him still wondering if he'd just been asked out on a date, that he didn't immediately follow when Valentin started walking. His cheeks flushed this time from embarrassed and he quickly moved to catch up. He followed him, having seen the cafe he spoke of but not knowing exactly where it was - he had a feeling the mobile part had something to do with that. He thought the mobile cafe, once they arrived, was quaint and cute. He ordered a caramel latte and then nodded when Valentin asked him to get them seats, going to do just that, snatching a table in the shade. He squirmed in his seat while waiting, trying to fight off the urge to get up and insist he pay Valentin back. He was certain Valentin would refuse any money from him and he knew there was nothing wrong with letting someone buy him something. It just made him wonder more if this was a date. But if it was a date, Valentin would have said that right? He would have specifically said the word date when asking him to coffee right? Right? Julian hadn't dated anyone since high school and that relationship had been brief because life had thrown him more important thing to focus on during that time - his powers manifesting for the first time ever. Thankfully he no longer accidentally bent desks when he was nervous about a test. He'd started fiddling with his phone when Valentin arrived, setting it down on the table to gratefully taking his drink, blowing on it before drinking some. He set the latte down on the table, though his hands remained wrapped around it. "Thank you," he said, smiling softly at the other man. "You didn't have to." He hesitated, unsure if he should bring up his powers. There was no doubt in his mind that Valentin had seen him use them. He just didn't know what Valentin thought about them, if he planned to do something about them, or if he planned to bring it up himself. Julian sighed, nerves suddenly shaking his breath. "Are you going to tell anyone?" he asked, hesitantly looking at Valentin. He wasn't sure what he'd do if the answer was yes. "About...?" He recreated the hand and wrist motion he'd done when he used his powers but this time there was no orange glow as he didn't actually summon his metal manipulation.

... IF YOU WERE DROWNED AT SEA, I'D GIVE YOU MY LUNGS SO YOU COULD BREATHE ... vulcan @valentin outfit 411 words n/a

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